Will the dead ‘take over’ Facebook before the end of century?

Internet, the most important invention of all times has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce around the world. The use of Social Media has tremendously grown over the years. Social media is now a new mode of global connectivity for a common man and a new platform for various businesses and entrepreneurs to endorse their products globally, regardless of the location.

A recent study has suggested that the dead may outnumber the living on Facebook, the world's biggest social networking platform, within fifty years. The analysis conducted by the researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), part of the University of Oxford dedicated to the social science of the Internet, that a minimum of 1.4 billion users will pass away before 2100 if Facebook ceases to attract new users as of 2018. Dead user numbers could reach as high as 4.9 billion by the end of the century if the social media giant continues to expand at current rates.

"These statistics give rise to new and difficult questions around who has the right to all this data, how should it be managed in the best interests of the families and friends of the deceased and its use by future historians to understand the past," said lead author Carl Öhman, a doctoral candidate at the OII.

"The results should be interpreted not as a prediction of the future, but as a commentary on the current development, and an opportunity to shape what future we are headed towards," explains Öhman.

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The researchers used a public dataset of projected mortality from 2000 to 2100, distributed by age group and nationality, from the United Nations (Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2017) to carry out the analysis.

"Facebook should invite historians, archivists, archaeologists and ethicists to participate in the process of curating the vast volume of accumulated data that we leave behind as we pass away. This is not just about finding solutions that will be sustainable for the next couple of years, but possibly for many decades ahead," co-author David Watson, also a DPhil student at the OII, recommended.

The analysis has provided the first rigorous projection of the accumulation of Facebook profiles belonging to the deceased. It argues that an exclusively commercial approach to data preservation poses important ethical and political risks that demand urgent consideration.

Technology is an irresistible reality of our life, for good or for worse. We can't deny the fact that we have gained immense from technological advancements but do we know that technology is taking over our lives, without us even noticing. We need to maintain equilibrium to reap maximum benefits and avoid risks associated with it.